Forest Tail
by Azure Butterfly
Summary: After Pikachu is kidnapped by Team Rocket - again - Ash and his friends run into a cursed forest to search for him. Unfortunately, they find out all too soon why the forest is "cursed."
1. Chapter 1

"Mwahahaha!"

Far above the ground, two people in funny white uniforms cackled evilly. At their feet, a Meowth rubbed his paws together, laughing in the same way. Yes, it was indeed, Team Rocket, and they couldn't believe their good luck.

"The twerp never even saw it coming!" Jessie cackled.

"We managed to nab that Pikachu before he even got out of that house!" James added.

In the center of the hot air balloon's basket, a rather annoyed yellow Pokémon moped inside of a big glass cylinder. Every so often, he would aim a vicious look at Meowth, but for the most part, Pikachu remained still, preferring not to give Team Rocket the satisfaction of seeing him struggle. He wasn't particularly worried – Ash would eventually save him, and then he could send the annoying dweebs far, far away. Until then, however…

"How far away are they?" Jessie asked.

"About a mile, I should say," James told her, peering through the lenses of a hot pink pair of binoculars. "They haven't even reached the forest yet!"

Team Rocket shared another evil laugh, only this time Meowth had to stop halfway through. He looked as though he were going to spit up a hairball… although, to be honest, Pikachu had never seen the talking Pokémon groom himself, so how would he get fuzz in his stomach in the first place? At any rate, he looked as though he had swallowed a bug or something, and he was forced to lean against the side of the basket in order to support himself.

"Meowth, are you okay?" James asked, suddenly noticing his partner's wheezing.

"Peachy…" the Normal-type coughed out.

Jessie fiddled around in a box attached to the side of the basket. "Hang on, there's a bottle of water around here somewhere…" There was a strange clicking sound, followed by Jessie softly saying, "Oh crap."

Then the bottom of the basket opened up, sending all four of its passengers falling to the forest floor twenty feet below.

Pikachu's container slammed into a sizeable rock, shattering the glass and allowing him to dart off in what he sincerely hoped was Ash's general direction. Behind him, the three members of Team Rocket groaned and pulled themselves out of the enormous pit of mud that they had just fallen into. All three of them looked longingly after the disappearing Pikachu, too weak to give chase.

* * *

_At the edge of the forest…_

"Team Rocket!" Ash screamed at the top of his lungs. "I am going to get you guys and… um…" The boy looked thoughtful for a moment, considering his options. "I will take you to Hoenn and make you eat May's cooking!" Satisfied with his threat, the boy continued to pace back and forth with an evil glare on his face.

"I don't get it," Dawn muttered from atop a nearby boulder. "Why can't we just chase after them?"

In way of response, Brock pointed to a nearby sign hammered into the side of a nearby tree.

KEEP OUT OF WOODS! DANGER!

THESE WOODS ARE CURSED! ENTER AT YOUR OWN PERIL!

"Ah. Good to know."

"That's it! I've had it! Pikachu, I'm coming!" Ash suddenly darted into the woods, leaving his friends dumbfounded.

"We've only been here for five minutes!" Brock shouted after his friend. "Pikachu will be back in just a bit!"

"We already saw the balloon fall!" Dawn protested. "It must have gotten away already!"

Ash ran back to the edge of the woods, fixing his friends with an evil gaze. The two other trainers sighed and followed the young boy into the "cursed" woods.

"We should split up and search on our own. That way, we'll find Pikachu much faster!" Brock offered helpfully. "There's a cave over there, so I'll go search in there."

Piplup poked his head out of Dawn's bag, where he had been taking a quick nap. "Lup!" he chirped, pointing to a nearby pond. "Good idea, Piplup!" Dawn gushed. "We'll check over by the pond!"

"What about you, A-" Brock started, only to realize that the younger boy had already darted off in the two seconds that his friends had taken their eyes off of him. "Well, so much for my plan," Brock sighed. "Hey! Ash! If you can hear this, meet us back here if anything happens!" A muffled call rang off from a ways away, probably the younger boy answering back. Then again, it could have been a Pokémon call. "Dawn, don't wander off too far from here. If all of us get separated, things will only get worse."

"Sure thing!" she replied in a bubbly voice.

Little did the two trainers know that things were going to get very, very bad no matter what they did while in the forest…

* * *

"Pikachu!" Ash called out, cupping his hands around his mouth and shouting loud enough for all the forest to hear. "Where are you?" Something rustled in the bushes next to him, but when the trainer went to look, it was only a Weedle, giving him a curious look. "Oh! Have you seen a Pikachu around here?" The Weedle shook its head and waddled away. "Thanks anyway!" Ash called after it. It wasn't until it had already walked back into the bushes that he realized it had answered him. That was sort of strange – most wild Pokémon were too timid to answer back. Then again, people probably didn't go into the forest very often, seeing as how it was "cursed," so maybe the Pokémon just thought of humans as strange new playmates rather than any danger.

Thinking back to the "curse," Ash laughed. How could the forest be cursed if all of the Pokémon lived in it? They all seemed happy, he thought. Families of Pidgey would play in the dust, Bug-types would eat the bushes, and Water-types would swim in the ponds. There didn't seem to be anything that set this forest apart from any of the other forests that the boy had even see! What could possibly make the forest so dangerous if all of the Pokémon lived there in peace?

No sooner had the idea entered his mind than Ash suddenly collapsed to his knees with the wind knocked out of him. What had happened? Had he been attacked by an angry Pokémon? Maybe the Weedle's mom was chasing him away from her baby. He looked around wildly for any sign of an attacking Pokémon. Nothing in front of him, nothing above him, nothing to the left, nothing to the right…

"Ow!" A sudden, sharp pain jabbed him in the back, then went away just as quickly as it had come. Ash whirled around, bracing himself for another attack from the angry Pokémon. It never came. Instead, a strange feeling came over him. He could feel something poking him in the back, but at the same time, he could feel something else entirely. It was like…

His heart racing, Ash looked behind him to see a strange thunderbolt-shaped thing shivering behind him. He grabbed the yellow thing with both hands. His worst fears were confirmed – he could feel himself grabbing it.

_He had a tail._


	2. Chapter 2

"Get it off!" Ash squealed, pulling on the strange new appendage. Unfortunately, this only caused a jolt of pain to go through his entire body, rather than causing the tail to come off. Ash squealed in pain and let go of his aching tail. "Oh man, what's happening?" he cried. His tail drooped down sadly and tears formed in his eyes. As he struggled not to cry, his tail twitched back and forth on its own accord. Already Ash could tell that it was going to take a while before he was able to control it completely. Well, at least until he got rid of it… but what if he couldn't get rid of it? What if he had to walk around with this cute little tail _forever?_ People would think he was some sort of alien and attack him! Or worse yet, all of the girls would think it was cute and try to cuddle him!

Of course, there was always the option to have it surgically removed… As soon as he thought that, Ash shuddered. There was no way that he was going to have his poor tail cut off with a knife!

Hmmm… it really was quite cute… and soft…

Ash smiled and ran a hand through the fur on his tail. He really was sort of cute with it, he thought. And now he could play games with Pikachu! And…

He jumped to his feet as he realized what was happening. He was starting to see the tail as a part of his body instead of the result of some sort of curse! If he didn't do something, who knows what might happen? Him being stuck with a tail wouldn't be the worst thing – he could be turned all the way into a Pikachu if he kept changing!

He needed to find Pikachu, and fast!

All of a sudden, a deafening scream rang out through the forest. Ash recognized it right away. "Dawn!" He took off running towards the sound of the voice. At first, his tail got in the way – it would bob back and forth and throw him off balance. After a few seconds, however, he got used to the strange weight and was able to use it to help him balance as he ran. He soon found himself at the shores of a medium sized pond. A short distance away, a young girl in a pink outfit sat curled up into a ball, crying.

"Dawn!" he shouted again, running over to the girl and sitting next to her. "What's the matt-?"

He stopped in midsentence when he caught site of a Pachirisu tail poking out from underneath her skirt. "Dawn! You too!"

She uncurled just enough to get a look at him. "You… you have a Pikachu tail?" Ash blushed.

"Yeah, I guess so…" Ash flicked it back and forth.

"It's… sort of cute," Dawn admitted. "But! I don't want to have a tail! This is horrible! I can't think of anything that could be worse!"

"Ash! Dawn!" Brock came running over to the duo, looking as though a pack of Houndoom were after him. "We have to get out of here! Now!" The two other trainers gave him a puzzled look. He looked completely normal – no tail, no fur, nothing! Still, he grabbed the other two by the wrists and started to pull them towards the edge of the woods. He didn't stop dragging the younger two until they were safely out of the trees.

"Brock!" Dawn shouted. "What's your problem? Ash and I have tails sticking out of our pants and you look completely normal!"

Brock flushed red. He looked like he was going to pass out.

"Are you okay?" Ash asked, suddenly concerned for his friend.

Brock shook his head and made a funny squeaking noise. He took a deep breath and slowly lifted up his shirt.

"…"

'Huh?" Ash finally asked after a moment of stunned silence. "You have a Chansey pouch?"

Brock sank to the floor, tears in his eyes.

"But Chansey are all girls!"

"**I know that, Ash!"** Brock suddenly screamed. "We're all turning into Pokémon there! If we stay in there long enough, I'll turn into a girl!"

Dawn stood staring at the pink pouch on Brock's tummy with a strange look on her face.

"We have to stay out of there!" Brock yelled. "We can get all of this removed now, but if you start having your nose or ears change, there's no way for you to go back!" His tone grew softer as he pulled his shirt back down. "We'll have to go to the Pokémon Center in the middle of the night. Nurse Joy will know what to do."

"What about Pikachu?" Ash cried.

Brock fixed him with a nasty look. "If we're turning into Pokémon, who knows what the forest is doing to Pikachu? It could have been turned into a terrible demon already! Come on Ash, we have to get out of here!" Dawn still hadn't said a word.

Ash took a step back from his friend. There was something in his eyes that he did not like at all. He made up his mind in an instant. He turned around and darted back into the forest, tears streaming down his face.

"Pikachu!" he called out. "It's okay! I'm coming for you! I won't let anything bad happen to you!"

Dawn made a motion as if to follow her friend, but Brock caught her arm. "No, Dawn! Let him go. We have to get to the town before morning…"

"Brock…" she cried. "He's…"

The older boy looked off into the woods. "He was… no, _is _a great friend, but there's nothing we can do. We'll just have to hope he finds Pikachu and the two of them get out of there. And… if… if he does turn into a Pikachu… someone will have to take care of him."

"What about his Pokémon?"

Brock held up Ash's belt. "I grabbed it from him while we were escaping. I had a feeling that he would dart back in like that…" Sighing, he dropped the belt into his backpack. "Come on, Dawn. We need to get to the town, quickly."

The girl glanced back one more time at the place that her friend had disappeared into before following Brock.


	3. Chapter 3

Ash swatted away branches as he dashed through the woods. Now that he was aware that the 'curse' of the forest was real, he was able to make out something different about the woods. There was a sort of humming buzzing around him, an eerie sort of noise. After a few minutes, he started to get a headache. With tears still streaming down his face, Ash stopped running and collapsed to the ground.

It was too much to handle. He couldn't breathe because he was crying, and now he felt like his ears were going to fall off. The trees around him were all just a mess of browns and greens with the occasional flash of color as a Pokémon peeked out of the bushes to look at the crying boy curiously. Ash just sat on the ground collecting himself for a few minutes, trying to calm down. He had to find Pikachu – that was the only thing that mattered. As long as they were together, they would be okay. As long as they were together, it wouldn't matter if Ash was himself or if the curse had gotten to him…

Ash suddenly had a picture of himself as a Pikachu, cowering in a lab somewhere while Professor Oak poked and prodded at him. A human turned into a Pokémon… wouldn't that be a sensation! Everyone would come to see him and take pictures, and…. No! Sure, Ash had been turned into a Pikachu once before, but that only lasted a day or so. Curses were the sorts of spells that were nearly impossible to get rid of. Once he was turned into a Pikachu by the forest, well, that was the end of it.

For a second, the boy considered running back out before the spell could affect him anymore. He could go with Dawn and Brock and get the tail removed, and then wait for Pikachu to come out of the forest…

Then _it _happened. All noise suddenly stopped, and Ash felt the same feeling that had come over him right before his tail had appeared. Ash prepared himself for the worst, but there was only a small feeling like needles poking the top of his head. His vision blurred for a moment, and he thought that he was going to faint for a minute. The feeling passed, however, and with a loud "POP!" his hearing came right back – this time much stronger than before. He could hear everything around him with perfect clarity, down to the shuffling of a Pokémon several hundred yards away. The trainer had a pretty good idea of what had just happened to him. His suspicions were confirmed when he reached up and felt the sides of his head. No ears whatsoever. Moving farther up, however, he could feel two long, fuzzy things lying flat against his head, smooshed down by his signature hat. With a trembling hand, he removed his hat, allowing his Pikachu ears to flick back into a more comfortable position.

He sighed as he took off his backpack and pulled out a pair of scissors. He hated to do this, but he had no other choice. If he was going to wear his hat, he had to cut holes for his ears. As he worked to modify his clothes, his ears flicked around on their own accord, taking in all of the sounds around him. Were it not for the fact that he was now some sort of mutant and could never go back, Ash would have found it absolutely amazing how he was able to hear everything around him. Right now, it was just pretty awesome.

His work finally done, Ash carefully slipped his ears through the holes in his hat. They fit through perfectly, and he now felt a little bit more normal. Well, as normal as he could feel, anyway. He figured that he might as well cut a hole for his tail while he had the scissors out, so he quickly unbuttoned his jeans and slipped out of them. Feeling a little bit silly sitting there in his underwear, Ash quickly snipped a hole in the back of his jeans and put them back on. With a few more snips, he was able to roll up his tail and put it through the hole with a little bit of difficulty. After putting away the scissors, the full absurdity of what he was doing suddenly hit him, causing him to blush. It was a good thing that there were no other people in the woods, or he would probably pass out out of sheer embarrassment.

"_Hi!"_

He had spoken too soon. With a yelp, the boy jumped up and spun around to see who had spoken, blushing furiously. Instead of a human, however, a friendly looking Raticate was looking up at him.

"_What are you?" _he asked. _"You look like a human, but also like a Pikachu!"_

Ash frantically tried to explain. "I am a human! Well… I was." He looked down at the ground. "Some jerks kidnapped my friend, Pikachu, and I ran in here to find him. There was a sign saying the forest was cursed, but I ignored it. I suddenly grew a tail after staying in the forest for a while, and my friends started to change into Pokémon too. They left to get help, but I still have to find Pikachu!"

The Raticate gave him a strange look.

"Please believe me!" Ash cried, panicking.

"_Oh! I do!" _the Raticate told him, throwing up his paws. _"There's a legend here that says that any humans that come into the forest will turn into a Pokémon they have a close affinity to! But… it's never happened before! All of the humans stayed out of the forest!"_

Ash blinked. "You know about the curse?"

Raticate nodded. _"All of us do. We're told about it when we're little as a bedtime story. But… none of us really knows the full story."_ Raticate looked sheepish. _"I never thought that it was real, but if you're turning into a Pikachu…"_ Something seemed to cross Raticate's mind. _"Oh! Your friend is a Pikachu, right? Well, you must really love him to turn into one yourself!"_

Just when the redness was starting to go out of his face, Ash blushed again.

"_You know, I bet Noctowl could tell you the whole story about the forest. That way, maybe you could know if there was any way to reverse it! Well, after you find your friend again."_

"Do… do you have any idea of where he could be?" Ash gasped.

"_Well, there's a field over that way where a bunch of Electric-types are always playing. Maybe he's over there!" _Raticate pointed to the east.

"Thank you very much, I hope I see you again someday, bye!" Ash shouted all in one breath. Raticate chuckled as the boy darted off to the field. He hoped that he would find his friend again. He seemed very nice, especially for a human.


	4. Chapter 4

Pikachu growled and pounced on a nearby plant, pretending that it was Team Rocket. He swatted at it with a paw, bit it, and finally gave it a good shock before rolling away. He blamed everything that had happened on them. First, they had kidnapped him. Second, they had gotten him lost in the middle of the forest. Thankfully, Pikachu had been taken in by a nice group of Jolteon that were letting him sleep in their cave. Unfortunately, they refused to let him leave the clearing near their home for a while until his leg healed up. He had pulled something during the fall from the balloon, and even though it wasn't _that _painful to walk around, it would start to act up when he ran.

Third, and most importantly, all of the Pokémon he talked to claimed that there was some sort of spell cast over the entire forest. _"What do you mean by that?"_ he inquired repeatedly.

"_Well…" _one of the Jolteon would start, _"It has something to do with the time way back when Arceus was somewhere else. No one knows where he was, exactly, but he left Mew in charge. He had just created people, and he left Mew to take care of them. Mew felt bad for the humans because they had no powers, so she gave them a gift. They would be able to transform into Pokémon if they wanted. When Arceus came back, he made Mew return the people to the way that he had made them; because that's the way they needed to be in order to keep the world in balance. Mew reluctantly agreed, but convinced Arceus to leave a few places on the Earth where the lines between human and Pokémon would be blurred…"_

"_I… I don't understand," _Pikachu had admitted. _"People turning into Pokémon?"_

Jolteon shrugged in the best way that a quadrupedal creature could. _"There's a legend that says that anyone that comes into the forest would be transformed into a Pokémon that they loved very dearly."_

Pikachu felt his heart skip a beat. He suddenly realized that Ash was probably in the forest, trying desperately to find him, and here he was stuck here until his leg healed up.

That night, he couldn't sleep. Every time he would start to doze off, a picture of Ash curled up into a ball in incredible pain would enter his mind and he would jump awake out of a dead sleep.

* * *

Meanwhile, a mere half-mile away, Ash was sitting inside a cave trying to keep warm. It was surprisingly cold in the forest, and he was having trouble keeping himself from jumping into the fire he had created in the middle of the cave. He even found himself wishing that he would just grow fur so he could stay warm.

He couldn't get to sleep – not in his current state. His ears were flicking all over the place, picking up the sounds of water running, leaves falling, and nocturnal Pokémon walking around. Whenever he tried to lie down – even on a bed of pine needles he had made – his tail made it impossible to get comfortable. He tossed and turned all night, visions of Pikachu trapped in a deep dark hole somewhere flashing across his mind. He whimpered and squeezed his legs against his chest. He couldn't wait for morning to come so he could continue his search for Pikachu.

At that exact moment, the strange feeling washed over again. Feeling woozy, he leaned up against the wall of the cave and prepared for the worst. His feet started to feel hot, so he hurried to pull off his socks and shoes. He was shocked at what he found – his feet were glowing a bright white, the same way that a Pokémon glows before evolving. He hadn't been able to see his ears or tail appearing, so he had never really put much thought into what it looked like when he started changing.

He watched, fascinated but horrified, as his feet grew bigger and molded themselves into a more rounded shape. When the glow started to fade, he could see that his feet were large, fuzzy, yellow Pikachu feet. It was a bit odd feeling due to the fact that he only had three toes on each foot, but the fur kept them nice and warm. Even without shoes and socks, they felt far warmer than before. He wiggled his toes experimentally, then cautiously touched one of his feet. They felt nice, like slippers. Well… they were kind of _attached_, but it was still nice to think that they were just a nice pair of fuzzy slippers.

He started to lean back against the wall, but jerked back up when the strange warm feeling started again, this time on his face. He couldn't see what was happening very clearly, but he could tell by the strange tingling feeling and the light that his nose was changing shape. When it finally faded, he could just barely see a tiny black button nose… and yellow fur. Starting to wonder exactly what the extent of the damage was, he lifted both hands up to his face. He could feel that his face had pulled itself into a sort of muzzle, and that it was covered in fur. He wished he had a mirror – if nothing else, he could at least get a laugh out of how ridiculous he looked.

After a few minutes, he decided that that must have been the end of it. Trying to sleep was futile, so he slung on his backpack, tossed his socks into it, and left his shoes in the cave. He didn't need them anymore, and they were too heavy to carry. Who knows, maybe there was a type of Pokémon that loved to eat sneakers.

Outside, the sun was just starting to rise, shedding enough light to reveal a clearing about a half mile away. Ash grinned when he saw a group of Shinx and Pichu playing in the field. As his eyes scanned the clearing, he caught sight of a trio of Jolteon, and…

_His Pikachu._

He darted off to the clearing like his life depended on it.


	5. Chapter 5

"Pikachu!"

The Electric-type groaned and rolled off of his bed of moss. He had been having a strange dream about the world getting taken over by Team Rocket and an army of Charizard, and when he opened his eyes he half expected to see one of the Fire-types sitting on top of Ash like they had been in the middle of his dream. It took him a few moments to realize that there were no Charizard trying to conquer the cave he was in, and a few more for him to remember where he was. He was in the middle of a forest, and he was injured – well, maybe not anymore. It didn't hurt as much as it had before. He was going to look for Ash soon, but it was very important that he found him quickly. Why was that…? He thought for a while, but it wouldn't come to him. Jolteon had told him that there was something bad about the forest, something that would hurt people. Therefore, Pikachu had to find Ash and make sure that he didn't stay in the forest for too long. But what was that bad thing?

"Pikachu!"

And why was he hearing Ash's voice? Was he imagining it? Pikachu rubbed his eyes blearily. He could feel a pit of dread growing in his stomach, but he had no idea why. Why was Ash supposed to stay out of the forest, again…! That was why! Jolteon had said that the forest was cursed, and that all of the humans that entered the forest would-

"_Pikachu!" _one of the Jolteon called out, darting into the room. "_Come quickly! It's your trainer! It's an emergency!" _Pikachu normally would have dashed off to see his trainer, but right now, he was too stunned to move. His mouth was wide open in shock, and his eyes seemed to stare off into the distance. Jolteon, thinking quickly, grabbed the back of Pikachu's neck in his mouth and carried him outside the cave like an Eevee kit.

Pikachu stared up at the person that Jolteon had just taken him to. At first he thought he was dreaming. He _had _to be dreaming! Ash was looking back at him, eyes glimmering, and a huge smile on his face, but… he looked like a human shaped Pikachu! He had long yellow ears, fuzzy paws…

"_Ash!" _Pikachu finally screamed. Then, before anyone else could do anything, he tackled his trainer to the ground and began to stop on him will all his might. _"What were you thinking?" _he shouted, while the young boy yelled in surprise. _"Now you're stuck like this, and I don't know how to make you better, and-!" _He suddenly stopped and burst into tears.

"Pikachu…" Ash said softly, wrapping his arms around his favorite Pokémon. "It's okay, as long as you're safe, nothing else matters!"

Pikachu sniffed and weaseled his way closer to his friend. _"But how are you going to fight Gyms anymore? They'll think you're a Pokémon and catch you!" _

"Well, I'm not a Pokémon… yet…" Ash chuckled nervously. "I guess… I didn't really think about how to reverse the curse…"

Pikachu was about to open his mouth to tell Ash about Mew and the forest when his friend started to glow with a harsh light. His entire body took on a white glow, like a Pokémon evolving. _"Ash!" _Pikachu exclaimed. _"What's happening?"_

"Oh…no…" Ash started. Before he could say anything else, a huge blast of light shot out of his body. The resulting shockwaves sent Pikachu and Jolteon flying into a nearby bush. In the two seconds it took for Pikachu to pull himself out of the bush, rub the dirt out of his eyes, and dart over to where his trainer had been standing… Ash seemed to have mysteriously disappeared. The only thing where the boy had been standing was his clothes and backpack, all in a huge pile. Pikachu screamed in terror and pounced on the pile with tears streaming down his face.

"_Pikachu, wait!" _Jolteon shouted out. Unfortunately, Pikachu had already launched himself towards the pile… and a very surprised looking Pikachu.

"_Pikachu?" _Ash groaned. The next thing he knew, a ball of yellow fluff had tackled him to the ground for the second time in the past ten minutes. _"Hey!"_ he squealed out. _"What's the big idea?"_

"_Ash!" _Pikachu squealed in response. His eyes lit up as he realized that Ash had not, in fact, been erased from existence… he had merely transformed all the way into a full-fledged Pikachu. Pikachu felt somewhat guilty as he looked over his trainer – Ash was obviously shocked from the whole ordeal, but there was something about the way he was sprawled out on the ground that just made Pikachu want to take care of him and give him hugs and nice things to eat. _"You're alive!" _he chirped, and gave his friend a happy lick on the cheek.

"_I'm _fuzzy," Ash corrected him. _"And everything else is huge… which means… I'm a Pikachu? Oh no…" _Noticing his friend's downcast look, he hurried to add, _"Pikachu, don't worry! It's okay, I'll find a way to get back to normal! You don't have to feel guilty!"_

Pikachu nodded and started to pull Ash's huge shirt off of him. He still felt guilty, but he didn't want Ash to know that. If he did, then he would just feel bad! It was his fault that Ash had been turned into a Pikachu, because Ash had gone into the forest to find him. If he had just tried a little bit harder to fight off Team Rocket, then he wouldn't have gotten lost in the forest, and Ash wouldn't have gone in there in the first place, and…

Ash yawned and rubbed his eyes. He hadn't slept for over a day, and it was just now starting to catch up on him. His clothes made quite a nice bed, and Pikachu was nice and soft, sort of like a big pillow…

Before Pikachu knew what had happened, Ash had grabbed him with his paws and fallen asleep right on top of him.

Well, Pikachu thought, maybe being used as a pillow would be a good punishment.


	6. Chapter 6

The next morning, Pikachu woke up to find himself in the Jolteon's cave, with Ash nowhere in sight. For a minute, he wondered if the whole thing had been a dream. Well, the part about finding Ash, at least. But what if the Jolteon had been a dream too? Where was he then? The Electric-type tottered onto his feet and peered around the cave. In the farthest corner, the three Jolteon were sleeping soundly, all curled up together to keep warm. The little Jolteon was apparently having a dream about chasing something, because his legs were waving through the air like crazy. Well, they had to be real, at least.

Pikachu groggily pulled himself out of the cave. It was still very early – the sun was just coming up, and the tree branches blocked the majority of the light. This meant that the entire clearing was rather dark, with only a mysterious glow illuminating it. A few Pokémon were wandering about the plain, but for the most part, it appeared deserted.

Pikachu finally caught sight of a familiar face sitting on top of a rather large rock. He knew that he hadn't been dreaming now – Ash was a Pikachu, and he looked none too pleased about it. Pikachu winced, remembering that it was all his fault for being captured by Team Rocket and dropped into the woods. Sure, those three buffoons had been responsible for grabbing him in the first place, but they were so weak that he should have been able to fight them off easily. Why hadn't he just aimed a good Thunderbolt at them and called it a day? Why had he tried to charge up for Volt Tackle instead? There was no real reason for him to use the extra power, and in the end that had been the fatal flaw that had allowed him to be captured and dropped into the cursed forest.

He darted over to the rock, ducking underneath a passing Luxray and narrowly avoiding being stepped on by a rather tall Ampharos. When he finally pulled himself onto the flat grey stone, his trainer turned to look for just a moment before continuing to look the other way at a larger, blue hued stoned. Pikachu's heart dropped. Ash must be angry at him if he couldn't even stand to look at him. Maybe it would just be better to… what? Run off into the woods and never come back? Stop trying to help his trainer return to normal? That would just make him an even worse friend! He had to prove that he wasn't useless – that he could do something, and that he _would. _He had to repay his trainer for everything he had done for him, and running away from the situation would be the worst possible thing he could do. S

"Ash?" he started. "Are you okay?" He braced himself for the worst.

"Huh?" the other boy asked, turning around to face Pikachu once again. "I'm fine! Why do you ask, Pikachu? … Oh yeah. Um… I'll get back to you on that one." He smiled nervously. "I've been thinking about how to return to normal for a while now, and I still haven't come up with any ideas… Well, except one. Come look at this!" He dragged his friend over to the spot where he had been sitting by the ear. Pikachu bit back the pain, figuring that he probably deserved that as well.

"See the rock? There's a story written on it, in pictures!" Pikachu was about to say something, but the words stuck in his throat as he saw what the pictures were depicting.

At the very top was a giant ball of light, like a star, but somehow different. It was like a star had come to life, if that even made sense. In the middle of the star were two Pokémon – a huge white one with green eyes, and a small pink one with blue eyes. The two of them overlooked a tiny blue sphere beneath them – Earth. The picture continued down the rock, splitting into two sections. On the left was a human city, with enormous skyscrapers and airplanes flying through the sky. On the right was a forest, with Pokémon peeking out of the branches and hollows of the towering trees. A bit farther down, a huge picture spread from one side to the other once more. It was a picture of a long, flat rock sitting next to a tall rock with something inscribed on it. It was the rock that the two Pikachu were sitting on.

"Ash!" Pikachu gasped. "This is about the forest!"

"Huh? Do you know something about it that I don't?"

"The Jolteon told me something yesterday!" Pikachu pointed at the top of the big stone. "At the top, those two Pokémon are Arceus and Mew. They share the responsibilities of watching over the world. Arceus watches over the humans and makes sure that they don't do anything stupid. Mew watches over the Pokémon and makes sure that they're okay. One time though, Arceus went away to some place beyond sight. That's when Mew took over everything. She felt bad because the humans had no powers, so she let them become Pokémon if they wanted. When Arceus came back though, he made her change all the humans back to normal because it would interfere with the natural order of things. Mew changed all of the humans back, but she secretly made a few places in the world where humans would be able to turn into a Pokémon they liked. That's why the forest is around – it's something that Mew made with magic!"

Ash frowned. "But why would Mew want to turn people into Pokémon?"

"Boredom, mostly," a third voice chimed in. "She's always been the prankster type, more than a benevolent deity."

"I guess that makes sense…" Ash started. A few moments later, he thought to look up at the new speaker – and found himself face to face with Celebi.


End file.
